TES/Aura L2 Water Vapor Nadir V007: Satellite Atmospheric Profiles

Data collection for the TES instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite is complete, having launched on July 15, 2004. The dataset contains retrieved water vapor profiles, estimated errors, geolocation, quality flags, and surface characteristics from nadir observations. It is provided in an HDF-EOS swath format, with global surveys consisting of up to 16 consecutive orbits and 4,608 retrievals.

Use Cases

• Modeling global tropospheric water vapor distribution based on retrieved species profiles.
• Analyzing atmospheric column density and vertical resolution for climate studies.
• Validating other satellite or ground-based atmospheric measurements using the quality and diagnostic data.
• Studying surface-atmosphere interactions using the provided surface characteristics for nadir observations.

Strengths

• Data is from a dedicated NASA satellite instrument (TES/Aura) launched on a specific date: July 15, 2004.
• Each global survey performed a specific number of retrievals: 4,608.
• Retrieval process is described, involving iterative comparison of observed and modeled spectra.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data collection is stated as complete, indicating no new observations will be added.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the Aura spacecraft.

Time Range

From launch (July 15, 2004) until data collection completion. Specific observation dates are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 20:21:17.237730; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, from satellite orbits.